Bhubaneswar: Another person was arrested in connection with the sub-inspector recruitment ‘scam’ in Odisha Monday, police said.
With the arrest of Silicon Tech Lab CEO Suresh Chandra Nayak, a total of 125 people, including 114 job aspirants, have been held in the case. The job aspirants were, however, released on bail three days ago.
Nayak was arrested days after police nabbed Sankar Prusty, the owner of Panchsoft Technologies.
The Odisha Police Recruitment Board (OPRB) had outsourced the conduct of the Combined Police Service Examination (CPSE) 2024 for the appointment of 933 sub-inspectors to PSU ITI Ltd, which further sub-contracted the work to Bhubaneswar-based Silicon Techlab.
Silicon Techlab, in turn, assigned key responsibilities to Panchsoft Technologies.
The recruitment examination was scheduled to be held October 5 and 6, but was postponed after the irregularities were detected, officials said.
The irregularities were detected after the 114 aspirants and three suspected brokers were nabbed on the night of September 29 at the state’s border with Andhra Pradesh when they were going to a “special coaching” centre in Vijayanagaram from Bhubaneswar.
The arrested aspirants had paid Rs 10 lakh each to the racket, and were supposed to pay another Rs 25 lakh after securing the job, police said.
Later, some more brokers were arrested, including the aides of the mastermind of the scam, who operated from Delhi. However, the mastermind is yet to be nabbed.
Another 110 candidates were supposed to get similar ‘coaching’ in West Bengal’s Digha, which is located on the Odisha border, on September 30, but due to the police action in Berhampur, it was cancelled, police said.
The state government has recommended a CBI investigation into the scam as it has inter-state implications, involving organised gangs.
Prusty has claimed that the scam involved irregularities worth Rs 1,000 crore, and he “surrendered” to unmask those involved in the conspiracy.
The opposition BJD alleged that the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) was directly involved in the scam.
“Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi is the home minister, and the OPRB conducted the examination. How come Prusty’s organisation, Panchsoft Technology, got the contract without knowledge of the CM,” BJD’s Rajya Sabha MP Sulata Deo said.
BJD spokesperson Lenin Mohanty alleged that the state government first announced a Crime Branch probe and then a CBI investigation to “protect the big leaders involved in it”.
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